If repeat business is overrated (and this is a bold, unsupported assertion), then I'm the customer Brick would want, because I haven't shopped them before. And I won't, because I have a reasonable expectation I won't get the price I agree to.

I'll second this, actually. For the simple reason that dumb, disconnected systems - like native apps and web services - tend to screw the end user less - because their lack of vertical integration leaves them with no motive. Or, more specifically, that by splitting the function into two different roles, you create two different entities who can keep each other in check.

When you control both ends, no amoral business entity can resist taking advantage.

Right now I'm looking at you, Twitter, lighting up my location icon on my iPhone for no apparent reason.

The latest revision of the official Twitter iPhone app (the app formerly known as Tweetie) has location service on whenever it is in the foreground. There is no way to turn it off. There is nothing to indicate what it is doing with your location info. This coming so close to the deprecation of 3rd party apps is a really, really bad sign for where this company is going.

I will never use their iPhone app again because of this. The #dickbar is merely annoying, recording your location without consent is actively offensive to the point I'm rethinking using Twitter at all. It's not an idle threat - I haven't used Facebook in several months because of their awful attitude towards privacy.

Chinese people can be absolute fanatics about respecting boundaries that are entirely imaginary to Westerners, while at the same time being completely oblivious to boundaries that are perfectly obvious to the rest of us.

Intention vs facts is the best I can come up with. It would be horrible to admit a bad intention, while no immediately perceivable fact could be construed to cause embarrassment (i.e. "but he is fat!"). Think of them as Vulcan clowns, if that helps. So you can observe or ask anything with impunity (e.g. how much money do you make), but you should always have a socially acceptable excuse for your actions ("no, i wasn't peeing on your foot, but it was on fire and i was trying to help. and i peed a little").

My in-laws are Chinese, so as puzzling as it is (and it is), I'm not the least bit surprised at this. I'm still trying to understand it, myself.

Well good on you for insulting China. Always a smart rhetorical strategy to deflect on someone else.

Then there's this: "Still, South Korean animators make one-third the salaries of their American counterparts, and Shin declined to comment on the full extend of the work his company has oursourced to SEK, a state-run animation studio of North Korea."

Your outrage is a little excessive given that. And you could have addressed that. But didn't./i got paid 3 times what you did for trolling comment boards//relax, kid, that's satire.